Coral Records

A longtime subsidiary of major label Decca Records, it was established in 1949 as the market began to diversify beyond the ability of Decca to handle all of their contracted artists. Coral was run independently of the major and as such took on a wide array of styles – from the jazz of Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, and Jimmy Dorsey to country act Owen Bradley and pop vocalists Georgia Gibbs and Don Cornell. Their biggest early splash was made in 1950 when The Ames Brothers landed a #1 hit with their version of “Rag Mop”.

Their black artists appeared on the separate 65000 line and included the early rock saxophones of James Von Streeter and Al Sears and later a few sides by Eddie Chamblee and Hal Singer along with some vocal acts like Jesse Allen, but like most corporate run companies they only paid cursory attention to this field… read more >